New album played live on release day at Heritage day fundraiser
Read the Lynn Heritage Day brochure with our listing at Hanse House Yard 12 noon Sep 16
The Penland Phezants: Songs For Skirting Heresy
Fenland folk music/ storytelling band The Penland Phezants will launch and recreate their entire new album live in Hanse House yard on Heritage Day this September 16.
In a free concert given to raise funds for 'Skirting Heresy' (a new production about the pilgrim, author and mystic Margery Kempe of Lynn) Gaz Phezant (narrative, vocals, percussion) Andy Phezant (lead vocals, guitar) Wood Phezant (harp, vocal harmonies) and Maz Phezant (narrative, lead and harmony vocals) will entertain Heritage Day crowds from noon.
Their musical show, performed in costume, includes dramatic readings from the Book of Margery Kempe about Margery's life, visions and journeys to the Holy Land and Prussia and it is hoped that costumed actors from 'Skirting Heresy' will be able to take time off from last minute rehearsals to add pageantry to the occasion.
The songs are all inspired by a gripping and hilarious new play New York author Elizabeth Macdonald has written about Lynn's famous daughter and, in an exciting development, Macdonald herself will be jetting in from New York to attend the Phezants' fundraising concert prior to attending the premiere of her play in Lynn Minster (Margery's own parish church) on Sep 22.
The album presents musical settings of key extracts from 'The Book of Margery Kempe' and of a collection of Gaz (poet Gareth Calway) 's lyrics about Margery's contemporaries. Among these fascinating contemporaries are her merchant father and Lynn MP/Mayor John Burnham; Margery's famous fellow mystic Julian of Norwich; Margery's husband John and her parish priest William Sawtrey of Lynn, burned as a heretic, as she herself nearly was. Fellow Phezants Andy (Wall) and Vanessa Wood Davies (Wood) have turned these lyrics into catchy folk songs, moving ballads and folk dances and helped bring Margery's incredible Book alive in compelling musical performances. Maz (Melanie Calway) is the voice of Margery.
The album - an epic 23 tracks long - is scheduled for release at the premiere of 'Skirting Heresy' on September 22 in the Minster but advance copies will be on sale at the outdoor Hanse House concert on Sunday 16, which starts at 12 noon. 7 of the album songs will be included in the 'Skirting Heresy' production itself a week later, performed as a creative score by the Phezants. Tracks from the album will also be available online @https://thepenlandphezants.bandcamp.com